__/ [ felmon john davis ] on Sunday 01 April 2007 08:44 \__
> On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 03:38:25 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>>> I'd go further - I'd say that it's already almost impossible to buy a
>>> machine from any of the big manufacturers *without* Vista.
>>
>> Au contraire. Some of them still sell PCs with XP, otherwise they receive
>> complaints. Bill Weisgerber does not believe in choice. He's a fascist.
>
> I am considing a Lenovo notebook and called IBM/Lenovo about my
> qualification for a special discount, pricing, etc.
>
> their notebooks offer XP, XP Pro and Vista. I said I would only be
> interested in XP. (didn't bother asking about Linux.)
>
> the fellow gave a brief guffaw (I'm not sure of its meaning but it was
> audible; I didn't pursue it).
>
> he said XP would be available to the end of the year.
>
> Felmon
Vista is usually sold with a minimal edition (even high-end laptops that cost
$3000 do not have Ultimate), which means that some vital features are
'locked'/disabled, so the buyer is virtually being forced to pay for an
upgrade (the 'hidden cost'). Vista comes with many extra lockins bolted in,
so unless you can get the laptop with GNU/Linux preinstalled, I advise you
to take XP and then install Linux on a second partition. Gradually get to
know that other new O/S and you'll feel more comfortable about migrating.
You can also virtualise XP under Linux---something which Vista forbids
unless you pay premium prices (Microsoft cites security reasons for that
part of the EULA, but it's probably about more shackles and restrictions...
about lockins and anticompetitive strategy).
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | GNU is Not Universal (begin recursion)
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
roy pts/5 Sun Apr 1 11:27 still logged in
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